Bitch Media - undocumented immigrantshttp://bitchmagazine.org/taxonomy/term/6706/0
enOh, the Irony of the Fight over the Immigration Reform Bill http://bitchmagazine.org/post/oh-the-irony-of-the-fight-over-the-immigration-reform-bill
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8260/8681620316_1dde3fa672_o.jpg" alt="people at a candlelit protest for immigration reform" width="500" height="333" /></p>
<p dir="ltr">Are you a criminal? Let me be specific: have you committed the civil offense of working in the United States without papers? Have you thwarted our nation of laws through heinous acts of unauthorized fruit picking? How about using <a href="http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2013/02/14/excloo-president-of-uc-berkeley-math-club-comes-out-as-a-dreamer-and-explains-the-math-of-immigration-reform-video/" target="_blank">your degree from&nbsp;UC Berkeley to perform renegade statistical analysis</a>? Are you one of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States?</p>
<p dir="ltr">Welcome to America! Please, perform back breaking labor in jobs Americans abhor and pay for our social services through a special tax code&nbsp;<a href="http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/General-ITIN-Information" target="_blank">written just for you</a>. Just don't try to drive your citizen children to school—we'll incarcerate and deport you for that.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 300px;" dir="ltr">• • •</p>
<div class="im">
<p dir="ltr">I don't need to convince you that the undocumented deserve a path to citizenship. &nbsp;A majority of Americans, both Republicans and Democrats, already agree on that.&nbsp;</p>
</div>
<p dir="ltr">Bipartisan leaders of Congress <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-frelickjacek-asylum-immigration-20130425,0,4065342.story" target="_blank">proposed a long-awaited immigration reform bill last week</a> that offers undocumented folks the opportunity to take a thirteen-year journey to citizenship, provided they pay $2000 plus back taxes, pass multiple background checks, and learn English. Polls by&nbsp;<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/04/fox-news-poll-most-support-strengthening-borders-before-other-immigration/" target="_blank">Fox News</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/Politics/majority-back-path-citizenship-undocumented/story?id=18292690#.UXanBKLU-aU" target="_blank">the Associated Press</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/Politics/majority-back-path-citizenship-undocumented/story?id=18292690" target="_blank">ABC</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/A_Politics/_Today_Stories_Teases/13018_JANUARY_NBC-WSJ.pdf" target="_blank">NBC and the Wall Street Journal</a>&nbsp;, and&nbsp;<a href="http://americasvoiceonline.org/blog/new-poll-strong-bipartisan-support-for-immigration-reform-that-includes-earned-citizenship-2/" target="_blank">Hart Research Associates</a>&nbsp;in the past year all found that a majority Americans, including a majority of Republicans, support a way for undocumented people to become citizens. A&nbsp;<a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/16/cnn-poll-most-see-pathway-to-citizenship-2/" target="_blank">CNN poll</a>&nbsp;taken last week reported that 78 percent of Republicans support citizenship for undocumented people. The list of Republican leaders who publicly support citizenship for the undocumented more or less mirrors the list of people whose names I have muttered under my breath as a curse word: George W Bush, John McCain, Karl Rove, Ralph Reed, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, and Sean Hannity. Ronald Reagan even invented the concept of 'amnesty' in 1986 when his immigration bill—the last major change in American immigration law—allowed 2 million undocumented immigrants to naturalize.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Unfortunately, save Mr. Ryan, none of those leaders are in the House of Representatives, whose <a href="http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2013/04/24/immigration-reform-could-sink-due-to-differences-within-gop-analysts-say/" target="_blank">Republican members have promised to kill any immigration reform</a> that includes a way for undocumented people to eventually gain the same rights as citizens. You see, House Republicans are voted in based on gerrymandered districts that buffer them from working class and minority voters. It seems&nbsp;no matter where undocumented people turn, there are more imaginary lines built specifically to exclude them from democratic representation.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The current debate over immigration reform is typical—a primer in the United States' archaic immigration system is a lesson in bitter irony.<a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/report/2012/11/14/44885/time-to-legalize-our-11-million-undocumented-immigrants/" target="_blank">Half of all American agricultural jobs</a>&nbsp;are currently performed by undocumented laborers, yet there are only 5,000 permanent work visas for 'low-skilled' laborers given out annually. Undocumented laborers contribute&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/magazine/do-illegal-immigrants-actually-hurt-the-us-economy.html?pagewanted=2&amp;_r=1&amp;" target="_blank">10 percent</a>&nbsp;of the Social Security Trust Fund, roughly&nbsp;<a href="http://www.agrigrowth.org/EconomicImpactImmigrantsMN.pdf" target="_blank">$8.5 billion</a>&nbsp;in taxes to social programs a year, yet they are portrayed as leeches. America's native birth rate is dropping so dramatically that new immigrants and their children will account for&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pewhispanic.org/2008/02/11/us-population-projections-2005-2050/" target="_blank">82 percent</a>&nbsp;of the growth of America's working age population over the next 50 years, yet President Obama increased the deportation rate of the parents of these new, necessary citizens to unprecedented heights.</p>
<p dir="ltr">It's ironic that America boasts the world's top university system, begs students to earn advanced degrees in math and science, and then provides little to no legal way for foreign-born graduates with those degrees to use them in our country. &nbsp;It's ironic that a culture which places 'hard work' at the top of our value pyramid disenfranchises those who perform the hard work of both moving to a new country, learning a new language, and working round-the-clock. It's ironic that our border with Mexico—a line redrawn in the 1840s so that Americans could keep slaves in Texas—defines which manual laborers receive voting rights.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Finally, it's ironic that we label as "illegal" people who are often driven to the US because of questionably legal actions of our own government and citizens. Maybe you're here in the US because the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_intervention_in_Chile" target="_blank">CIA aided in the death of your democratically elected leader</a> and replaced him with a dictator. Or because your home country has become <a href="http://projects.latimes.com/mexico-drug-war/#/its-a-war" target="_blank">dangerous for your family</a> due to a combination of American narcotic appetites, unregulated gun industry and insistence on free trade policies.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Whatever your reasons, hang in there, criminal! If this reform bill passes and you pay $2000 plus back taxes, learn English and continue working nonstop for thirteen years, you'll finally get the chance to vote. Just don't expect to be included in our<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324763404578432943192446074.html?KEYWORDS=immigration" target="_blank"> healthcare system</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Photo: Members of the <a href="http://www.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2011/12/16/occupy-joins-with-immigrant-groups-to-protest-deportation" target="_blank">Northwest Immigration Youth Alliance at a 2011 protest</a> to stop the deportation of a 19-year-old (credit: Sarah Mirk).&nbsp;</em></p>
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http://bitchmagazine.org/post/oh-the-irony-of-the-fight-over-the-immigration-reform-bill#commentsimmigrationRaceundocumented immigrantsPoliticsThu, 25 Apr 2013 18:38:39 +0000Anand Balasubrahmanyan22362 at http://bitchmagazine.orgOn Our Radarhttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/on-our-radar-31
<p>Meanwhile, in the land of blogdom...</p>
<ul>
<li>Tiger Beatdown's Garland Grey reports <a title="Tiger Beatdown: &quot;I Haven't Done This Much Notetaking Since College&quot;" href="http://tigerbeatdown.com/2011/03/13/i-havent-done-this-much-notetaking-since-college-a-report-from-sxsw/">from SXSW!</a></li>
<li>On Salon, Bitch contributor <a title="Bitch profile: Page McBee" href="/profile/page-mcbee">Page McBee</a> talks about <a title="Salon: &quot;I want to be more than just a man or a woman&quot;" href="http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/03/14/neither_man_nor_woman/index.html">not fitting into the gender binary</a>.</li>
<li>At <a title="Racialicious: &quot;What's The Big Deal About 'I Will Follow?'&quot;" href="http://www.racialicious.com/2011/03/15/what%E2%80%99s-the-big-deal-about-i-will-follow/">Racialicious</a> and <a title="Bold As Love: &quot;What's The Big Deal About 'I Will Follow'?&quot;" href="http://boldaslove.us/2011/03/whats-the-big-deal-about-i-will-follow.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BoldAsLove+%28Bold+As+Love%29">Bold as Love</a>, Rob Fields explores the limited film-buzz surrounding <em><a title="&quot;I Will Follow&quot; homepage" href="http://www.iwillfollowfilm.com/">I Will Follow</a>.</em></li>
<li><a title="Ms. Foundation for Women: Igniting Change blog" href="http://ms.foundation.org/blog">Ms.</a> and <a title="AlterNet: &quot;Budget Cuts Spell Crisis for Women with HIV&quot;" href="http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/03/15/budget-cuts-spell-crisis-for-women-with-hiv/?utm_source=feedblitz&amp;utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&amp;utm_campaign=alternet">AlterNet</a> look at how budget cuts could affect HIV-positive women. </li>
<li>Matt Kailey talks about the <a title="Womanist Musings: &quot;The Sears Catalog Incident and the Significance of Clothing&quot;" href="http://www.womanist-musings.com/2011/03/sears-catalog-incident-and-significance.html">class dynamics</a> of clothing on Womanist Musings.</li>
<li>At Trans/plant/portation, Bitch contributor <a title="Bitch profile: EvMaroon" href="/profile/evmaroon">EvMaroon</a> discusses <a title="Trans/plant/portation: &quot;Redefining Terrorism&quot;" href="http://transplantportation.com/2011/03/11/redefining-terrorism/">redefining terrorism</a>.</li>
<li><a title="Questioning Transphobia: &quot;News at 11: reporting on trans issues still of patchy quality; water still wet.&quot;" href="http://www.questioningtransphobia.com/?p=3669">Helen at Questioning Transphobia</a> reports on some <em>bad</em> reporting regarding the supposed average lifespan of <a title="Camp Trans homepage, including discussion of the term &quot;trans*&quot;" href="http://www.camp-trans.org/">trans*</a> people.</li>
<li>RH Reality Check continues to keep us up-to-date about anti-choice politicians with a profile on Republican maybe-candidate <a title="RH Reality Check: &quot;Anti-Choice Stance Makes New Jersey's Governor Less Popular&quot;" href="http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2011/03/15/antiabortion-stance-makes-jerseys-governor-less-popular">Chris Christie</a>. In the humor category<em></em>, Colbert has something to say about all this <a title="Hulu: &quot;The Colbert Report: Colbert PAC Ad&quot;" href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/223092/the-colbert-report-colbert-pac-ad#s-p1-sr-i1">maybe-running</a> business.</li>
<li>Still furious about the <em>New York Times</em>' awful coverage of the gang rape in Texas? So are we, and so are <a title="Bitch Flicks: &quot;On Rape, the Media, and the New York Times Clusterfuck&quot;" href="http://www.btchflcks.com/2011/03/on-rape-media-and-new-york-times.htmlB">the folks at Bitch Flicks</a>, who talk about rape culture, the media, and the defensive chorus of "You just want to be offended!" (via <a title="Gender Focus: &quot;The Round-Up: Mar. 15, 2011&quot;" href="http://www.gender-focus.com/2011/03/15/the-round-up-mar-15-2011/">Gender Focus</a>)</li>
<li>The <a title="ColorLines: &quot;Drop the I-Word. Don't call people 'illegals.' Sign the Pledge.&quot;" href="http://colorlines.com/droptheiword/">Drop the I-Word</a> video campaign continues at ColorLines with <a title="ColorLines: &quot;Drop the I-Word: I Am... Undocumented&quot;" href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/03/drop_the_i-word_i_amundocumented.html">"I Am... Undocumented."</a></li>
<li>Jos at Feministing shares and discusses the <a title="Feministing: &quot;Short documentary: Always My Son&quot;" href="http://feministing.com/2011/03/15/short-documentary-always-my-son/">LGBT documentary</a> "Always My Son."</li>
<li>If you're in the San Francisco area, be sure to attend next week's <a title="Questioning Transphobia: &quot;Upcoming event: Girl Talk, A Trans &amp; Cis Woman Dialogue&quot;" href="http://www.questioningtransphobia.com/?p=3649">Girl Talk, A Trans &amp; Cis Woman Dialogue</a>, co-curated by <a title="Gina de Vries homepage" href="http://www.ginadevries.com/">Gina de Vries</a>, <a title="Taking Steps: Trouble ensues when you let monsters talk pretty." href="http://takingsteps.blogspot.com/">Elena Rose</a> and <a title="Julia Serano homepage" href="http://www.juliaserano.com/index.html">Julia Serano</a>!</li>
</ul>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/on-our-radar-31#commentsblack filmBlog Roundupclassfeminist blogospheregenderOn Our Radarrape cultureSXSWundocumented immigrantsBitch HQFri, 18 Mar 2011 16:51:52 +0000Deb Jannerson9475 at http://bitchmagazine.orgRace Card: Why Are Pregnant Migrant Women in Arizona Being Shackled?http://bitchmagazine.org/post/race-card-why-are-pregnant-migrant-women-in-arizona-wearing-shackles
<p>Last year authorities arrested expectant mother Miriam Mendiola-Martinez, an undocumented immigrant, and charged her with using someone else's identity to work. After the incarcerated Mendiola-Martinez delivered a baby boy Dec. 21 via C-section at Maricopa Medical Center in Arizona, she was shackled for two days to her hospital bed and not allowed to nurse her baby, <a href="http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=bc96e9bf40ad9ac97a78dba165ea2448" rel="nofollow">New America Media (NAM)</a> reports. Moreover, when guards escorted her out of the hospital in shackles, no one told her the whereabouts of her son. </p>
<p>The case of Mendiola-Martinez isn't an isolated one. The year before authorities arrested undocumented immigrant Alma Chacón during a traffic stop for having outstanding unpaid tickets, according to NAM. Chacón said detention officers shackled her hands and legs during childbirth. To boot, she couldn't nurse or hold her baby until her release from custody almost 70 days later. </p>
<p>The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists frowns upon the practice of shackling pregnant, laboring or post-partum women because it endangers the health of expectant mothers and unborn children alike. Mendiola-Martinez, who wasn't just shackled during delivery but during the last two months of her pregnancy, told NAM that the 12-foot-long chain authorities forced her to wear hurt her waist. </p>
<p> "I could barely walk. I don't think I could have escaped or even dared to run. I don't think there was a need for them to do that," she said. </p>
<p>In 2008, the Federal Bureau of Prisons barred the shackling of pregnant inmates in federal prisons except when it was necessary for security concerns, but the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) doesn't ban shackles, NAM says. A major reason undocumented women end up giving birth while in custody in Arizona is because voters there enacted a law in 2006 that denies undocumented immigrants the right to post bail. The reported goal of the law, <a href="http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/archives/001898.html" rel="nofollow">Prop. 100</a>, is to keep undocumented immigrants charged with "serious crimes" from being released, but included among "serious crimes" is possessing false documents, which migrants clearly rely on to land work. Had Prop. 100 not been on the books, Mendiola-Martinez would have been released on bond and not forced to wear a 12-foot chain while pregnant and after a C-section. </p>
<p>Each year about 1,500 pregnant women enter Maricopa County Estrella Jail, and out of them, 11 percent are undocumented immigrants, NAM reports. To prevent more women from enduring pregnancy in chains, get involved with the <a href="http://www.rebeccaproject.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=69&amp;Itemid=151" rel="nofollow">Rebecca Project</a>, an advocacy group working to stop confinement of pregnant women in prison. </p>
<p> "Obstetricians recognize that women who are in labor need to be able to freely move around and be free to assume different positions during birthing, and that to restrain or shackle renders a mother and her child more vulnerable to complications," the Rebecca Project states. </p>
<p>At present, no statistics are available about the number of incarcerated pregnant women who miscarry as a result of wearing shackles. </p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/race-card-why-are-pregnant-migrant-women-in-arizona-wearing-shackles#commentsArizonapregnant women in prisonrace cardundocumented immigrantsSocial CommentaryThu, 04 Feb 2010 16:00:00 +0000Nadra Kareem Nittle2789 at http://bitchmagazine.org